Marge Swanson, a fat acceptance activist who helped pioneer the concept of thin privilege, is dead from a heart attack. She was 34 years old. Swanson championed the notion that weight and health have no inherent connection. She enjoyed dying her hair bright colors, wearing glasses and dating African American men. “It’s not that I’m thin-phobic,” she once told an audience on a college campus. “It’s just that curvy women have been enslaved and victimized by capitalists for far too long and yeah, I’m upset.” Swanson was born the middle of five children to a working class family in rural...

It's maddening to watch a movie trailer resplendent with engrossing and alluring screenshots projecting a terrific flick, only to learn after paying the price of admission that you'd watched the totality of the movie's value. That's not misleading; it's good advertising. But sometimes movie studios are just plain guilty of false advertising. The new movie "Me Before You" looks to be an inspirational love story. A lower-class woman in England is hired to take care of a young man who recently became a quadriplegic after being hit by a car. He inspires her to live a fuller life; she inspires...

Cuban revolutionary icon Fidel Castro appeared in public for the first time in nine months, chatting with school children and criticizing Barack Obama's recent visit. Castro, 89, was seen on state TV state seated as he spoke to children about a late fellow revolutionary leader, Vilma Espin. The last time Castro appeared in public was nine months ago, when state TV showed him with civilians who work with the armed forces and the interior ministry.

...and now I am delighted to hear that he is still "outliving" his own death. George is reportedly still hanging in there and his son says he may just live through another Christmas. An announcement Tuesday night that his death could happen any minute somehow triggered widespread reports on the 'net and in the press that he had passed. I waited until Locus (the science-fiction news site) and other official-type sources had posted it before I decided it was so. Locus seems to have taken their announcement offline and so has Variety...

Sprint may not be the only company intersted in Radio Shack's soon to be vacant retail stores. According to a report from Bloomberg, Amazon has expressed intersted in the brick-and-mortar locations. Amazon is reportedly intersted in using the stores as a showroom for its hardware, as well as place for customers pick up and drop off merchandise. Amazon currently sells a line of tablets, its Fire smartphone, as well as its new Echo bluetooh speaker and personal assistant. Radio Shack has about 4,000 retail locations in the United States. Reports have surfaced that the company is looking to sell some...

China's Heat Wave Brings 'Dead' Man Back to Life BEIJING — Having the dead guy jump up for a drink probably wasn't part of the script. A staged protest claiming that city officials had beaten a sidewalk vendor to death in central China went awry when the man playing dead under a white sheet was overcome by the region's heat wave and sprang up to quaff a bottle of water, state media reported Monday. "It's too hot. I can't bear it anymore," the man was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua News Agency. More than 10 men had gathered Saturday...

The world of organ donation in Denmark is in turmoil. A documentary was aired earlier this month which showed family members reacting in anguish to the news that their 19-year-old daughter was brain dead after a car accident, agreeing to donate her organs and allowing doctors to turn off her respirator. About 1.7 million viewers tuned in to the heart-rending drama. But Carina Melchior did not die after her respirator was removed. She is now undergoing rehabilitation and may make a full recovery. About 500 people immediately removed their names from Denmark’s organ donor register. Doctors at Aarhus University Hospital...

It is clear to us that enrollment and attendance in a public full-time day school is required by California law for minor children unless (1) the child is enrolled in a private full-time day school and actually attends that private school, (2) the child is tutored by a person holding a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught, or (3) one of the other few statutory exemptions to compulsory public school attendance (Ed. Code, § 48220 et seq.) ***[which allows parents to homeschool as long as they register]*** applies to the child. Because the parents in this case...

HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said the U.S. government misinformed Americans and the world about 9/11, echoing conspiracy theories about the terror attacks against the United States six years ago. In an essay read by a Cuban television presenter on Tuesday night, Castro said the Pentagon was hit by a rocket, not a plane, because no traces were found of its passengers. "Today one knows there was deliberate misinformation," wrote Castro, who has not appeared in public since July of 2006 when life-threatening surgery for a secret illness forced him to hand over power to his brother...

My cellphone has not stopped ringing for the past ten minutes. Various sources inform that an announcement will come within the next few minutes from the Cuban government on Cuban TV and media. Stay tuned and we'll see if we've been manipulated once again or if today is the birth date of Cuba's liberty. Update: Here's the deal and what I know up to now, as of 1500 hours, August 24, 2007: First, South Florida Law Enforcement is on alert. An EOC (Emergency Operations Center) has been set-up and manned somewhere in Homestead. Im also told Local and State government...

Charlie Crist Let My Daughter Die by Robert Schindler, Sr. Posted Jul 31, 2006 As most Americans know, on March 31, 2005, my daughter, Terri Schindler Schiavo died of starvation and thirst after having her feeding tube removed by court order. The sad chain of events that concluded with Terri’s death ignited a media firestorm nationally and internationally. What few saw or heard was the callous inaction of aspiring governor Charlie Crist. Florida Atty. Gen. Charlie Crist let my daughter die. He had it within his authority to save her life, but he turned a blind eye to her suffering....

Bush’s giant Right Wing Noise Machine (RWNM) loves to preach about the Bush economic miracle. In fact, the RWNM’s current thinking is Bush doesn’t spend enough time talking about his economic triumphs. If only he did, then everyone would fall in line and believe in the great Bush economic miracle. There is one problem with this argument: it’s a lie. Any way you look at the Bush economy, it comes up short. Today, I want to compare Bush’s job creation record with other economic recoveries. As usual, Bush comes up way short. The national Bureau of Economic Research has identified...

Schiavo Autopsy Leaves Most Important Questions Unanswered For more information: Diane Coleman or Stephen Drake (708) 209-1500 exts. 11 & 29 708-420-0539 (cell) Forest Park, IL, June 15, 2005 -- Today's release of findings in the autopsy of Terri Schiavo leave the central issues in her life and death unanswered, says a national disability rights group. For example, contrary to articles stating the autopsy report "supported" the diagnosis of "persistent vegetative state (PVS)," a neuropathology expert today was careful to say that PVS is a clinical diagnosis rather than a pathological one. He added that nothing in the autopsy was...

"Too Late To Die Young: Nearly True Tales From a Life," by Harriet McBryde Johnson. About two years ago, Harriet Johnson appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. If you saw her portrait, you probably haven't forgotten it. A thin woman in a wheelchair leans forward, a purple shawl draping one shoulder. Johnson describes it this way in her new memoir: "The portrait has been described as beautifully disturbing, and most nondisabled people seem to see it that way. I'd prefer to call it disturbingly beautiful, but I'll take it the other way around if I must."...

On February 14, 2005, disability advocates with Not Dead Yet issued a call for moratorium on the withholding of assisted sustenance and hydration from people diagnosed to be in a persistent vegetative or minimally conscious state. Citing study findings published in a recent edition of Neurology Magazine, Not Dead Yet’s Stephen Drake stated: "Given the current research regarding brain activity and misdiagnosis, it's a virtual certainty that countless people have been helpless to prevent their own deaths through starvation and dehydration." The study Drake refers to was reported in the February 8, 2005 edition of the New York Times. The...

"Basically we are going to fight tooth and nail to save Terri from starvation," Terry said. "Part of this has to do with who has the will to save her and who has the will to kill her and whose will is stronger."